{"id":1620,"date":"2007-08-05T15:03:36","date_gmt":"2007-08-05T20:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/go-fish\/"},"modified":"2007-08-05T16:05:04","modified_gmt":"2007-08-05T21:05:04","slug":"go-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/go-fish","title":{"rendered":"Go, fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

I return to A River Runs Through It<\/a> every so often. The exploration of art, grace and family has become a touchstone for me, even though I’m not Presbyterian, have never fished, and have no plans to visit Montana. I find the writing beautiful and always get teary in the final pages.<\/p>\n

I just finished re-reading it this morning. Here’s a piece:<\/p>\n

As the heat mirages on the river in front of me danced with and through each other, I could feel patterns from my own life joining with them. It was here, while waiting for my brother, that I started this story, although of course at the time I did not know that stories of life are often more like rivers than books. But I knew a story had begun, perhaps long ago near the sound of water. And I sensed that ahead I would meet something that would never erode so there would be a sharp turn, deep circles, a deposit, and quietness.<\/p>\n

The fisherman even has a phrase to describe what he does when he studies the patterns of a river. He says he is “reading the water,” and perhaps to tell his stories he has to do much the same thing. Then one of his biggest problems is to guess where and at what time of day life lies ready to be taken as a joke. And to guess whether it is going to be a little or a big joke.<\/p>\n

For all of us, though, it is much easier to read the waters of tragedy.<\/p>\n

–Norman Maclean<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s funny but, as I look over that passage now, it lies flat and seems kinda preachy. I suppose you really need to read the whole thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I return to A River Runs Through It every so often. The exploration of art, grace and family has become a touchstone for me, even though I’m not Presbyterian, have never fished, and have no plans to visit Montana. I find the writing beautiful and always get teary in the final pages. I just finished … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Go, fish”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-q8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1372,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/atlantis-acres","url_meta":{"origin":1620,"position":0},"title":"Atlantis Acres","author":"Gil","date":"March 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A township near my home plans to buy out 33 houses on River Road near the Pompton River, level them, and \"return the land to its natural state.\" The state and feds are kicking in a couple million to do this, since A federal spokeswoman said Hoffman Grove ranked second\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "suburbs"","block_context":{"text":"suburbs","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/suburbs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17432,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-630-meeting-across-the-river","url_meta":{"origin":1620,"position":1},"title":"Episode 630 – Meeting Across The River","author":"Gil","date":"March 18, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 630: Meeting Across The River Uh-oh! Gil doesn't have a guest this week, so he recorded a monologue from a hotel room in Weehawken, NJ during a business conference for his day job! He talks mental health, oblique mythology, Charles Crumb, comics and pharma friends, the St.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meetingrivercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meetingrivercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meetingrivercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meetingrivercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meetingrivercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4555,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/george-on-the-block","url_meta":{"origin":1620,"position":2},"title":"George on the block","author":"Gil","date":"October 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As I mentioned a while back, one of my favorite recent discoveries is NYC Grid, in which blogger Paul Sahner posts a new photo essay of a block of NYC each day. About a month ago, he covered 72nd St., between York and FDR. I found this post fascinating, especially\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"1565461.1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/1565461.1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2068,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-51908","url_meta":{"origin":1620,"position":3},"title":"What It Is: 5\/19\/08","author":"Gil","date":"May 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad, and the first 8 issues of the new Omega the Unknown miniseries, sorta written by Jonathan Lethem, whose prose I've never tried out. I oughtta sample some of his stuff on my Kindle, because I'm that awesome. What I'm listening to: A new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FI73MA","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1362,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/mental-health-day-part-2","url_meta":{"origin":1620,"position":4},"title":"Mental Health Day, Part 2","author":"Gil","date":"February 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"You can love completely without complete understanding.\" --Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It","rel":"","context":"In "travel"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":282,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/safe-sound-sleepy","url_meta":{"origin":1620,"position":5},"title":"Safe, Sound, Sleepy","author":"Gil","date":"July 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm in Budapest, staying at the Hotel Gellert, on a hill in Buda, right by the river. Once I find a wireless hotspot (I'm at an internet cafe in Pest at the mo), I'll post the story of the two days in Tiszaroff for Jon-Eric's wedding, a period your humble\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Budapest"","block_context":{"text":"Budapest","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/budapest"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}